KORD BREACH did not delete your existing Tarkov life. Patch 1.1.0.0 added a third, opt-in progression path: a Seasonal Character on separate servers. Your permanent PvP Zone and PvE Zone profiles stay separate.

That split matters before you pick a modifier, chase a document, or plan an Arena session. This guide maps the parts that are confirmed, the details that change with the live game, and the decisions worth making first.

Watch the official KORD BREACH trailer for the Season 1 setting. Use the Patch 1.1.0.0 announcement for rules that can change after an update.

🎯 What is KORD BREACH?

KORD BREACH is Escape from Tarkov's first season, launched in Patch 1.1.0.0 on August 3, 2026. It introduces an optional Seasonal Character, season-wide Global Modifiers, optional Personal Modifiers, a task line, Seasonal Rewards, and a free Battle Pass. It is not a full account wipe.

Seasonal Character definition

A Seasonal Character is a separate Tarkov profile on separate servers. It is independent from your permanent PvP Zone and PvE Zone characters, and you create or switch to it from the character-selection screen. Think of it as a fresh PvP progression run with its own seasonal rules, not a replacement for your existing stash or progress.

Battlestate says seasonal progression resets when a major content update starts the next season, normally on a four-to-six-month cadence. Battlestate has not announced an end date for KORD BREACH in any patch note or official post. Asked on August 21, 2026 whether Season 2 would begin the moment Season 1 ends, Nikita Buyanov answered only that there will be a short break. Battlestate's August roadmap pencils Season 2 in for December, but a roadmap month is not a date, and the countdown the client shows is a timer rather than an announcement. Treat every date you see for this as an estimate. Battlestate's Patch 1.1.0.0 notes are the source of record.

How seasons differ from permanent profiles

Separate character progression from account-wide unlocks. A Seasonal Character resets. Your permanent PvP and PvE characters do not reset because you create one.

Patch 1.1 also changed some rules beyond the seasonal profile, including trader task progression, the economy, Hideout costs, and Kappa-related achievements. Those are patch-wide changes, not part of creating a Seasonal Character.

The next choice is whether you want the season-wide rule set alone or a Personal Modifier tradeoff on top of it.

🔄 What changes when you create a Seasonal Character?

Creating a Seasonal Character does not overwrite your permanent PvP or PvE progression. It starts a separate profile with seasonal rules and a future automatic reset. Eligible Seasonal Rewards that you unlock become available across modes, while rewards left locked at season end become permanently unobtainable.

Reset rules

The character itself is the time-limited part. Battlestate describes a reset every four to six months when a new season and major update arrive. In an August 14, 2026 question round, Nikita Buyanov put the cadence at two seasons per year. Note that this does not sit comfortably with the December roadmap month: Season 1 started on August 3, so a December Season 2 would make this season roughly four months, the short end of the range. Both statements are unconfirmed and they disagree. That cadence creates a reason to begin early if a specific Season 1 trader offer matters to you, but it is not permission to invent a final date.

Seasonal rewards work differently. A reward can be unlocked through a stated PMC level, task, or task chain. Once unlocked, it becomes permanently available across PvP Zone, PvE Zone, and PvP Season. The risk is the reverse case: a reward still locked when KORD BREACH ends becomes permanently unavailable. Battlestate's Patch 1.1.0.0 notes carry both halves of this rule verbatim: unlocked rewards "remain permanently available" across modes, and any that are still locked at the end of the season "become permanently unobtainable".

Profile separation

Treat PvP Season like a new route with its own operating conditions. Season 1 adds Global Modifiers, allows optional Personal Modifiers, and disables insurance in PvP Season. None of those rules mean that your permanent PvP Zone or PvE Zone character suddenly loses insurance or gets reset.

PvP Season is a separate PvP profile, not a seasonal PvE option. PvE Zone players keep their permanent characters and can still make shared Battle Pass progress there.

That distinction prevents a common returning-player mistake: reading a seasonal rule, then applying it to every Tarkov profile. Before a costly raid or a stash decision, confirm the profile label in the character selector and read the live rule text shown for that profile.

Reward portability

Battle Pass rewards and Seasonal Rewards are connected by timing, but they are not the same system. Mixing them creates most of the confusion around what carries over.

The Battle Pass is free. Seasonal Rewards may be time-sensitive because of their unlock condition. Keep those paths separate in your checklist.

⚖️ How do Personal Modifiers work?

Personal Modifiers let you trade convenience for challenge at Seasonal Character creation. Positive choices spend points, negative choices grant points, and the final balance must be zero or higher. You can create the character without Personal Modifiers. Global Modifiers still apply to every Seasonal Character.

Positive and negative points

The point system is a constraint, not a universal build recommendation. A negative Personal Modifier gives points. A positive one uses them. You can combine choices only if the final balance remains zero or higher.

Start with your goal, not a creator's old tier list. A player learning the seasonal loop has different needs from someone pursuing a high-challenge achievement or planning to use Arena progression. Read the active modifier text on the creation screen, write down the exact patch date, and decide only after you understand the tradeoff.

Global Modifiers are different. They apply to all Seasonal Characters, cannot be selected individually, and cannot be disabled or changed by one player. The official notes say the active list appears during character creation. That makes the live selection screen more reliable than a guide written before a hotfix.

No-modifier option

Choosing no Personal Modifiers is a valid choice. It is often the cleanest way to learn what the season itself changes before adding another rule layer. You still play under the season's Global Modifiers, but you avoid creating a personal constraint that no longer fits your actual goal.

If you are unsure, do not treat a modifier decision as a race. Capture the visible descriptions first. A Seasonal Character is optional, while a rushed choice can shape the whole run.

How to choose a modifier

Modifier names, point values, and effects are live-service details. This overview intentionally does not publish a static best-build list. A dedicated modifier guide should own the verified list, calculator logic, and patch-date label once it is live.

Confirm the current Global Modifiers first. Then name your goal, accept only tradeoffs you understand, and keep the final balance at zero or higher. That is more durable than copying a launch-week preset.

🎟️ How does the Battle Pass work?

The free KORD BREACH Battle Pass shares progress and unlocked rewards across PvP Season, PvP Zone, and PvE Zone. You earn it with TerraGroup documentation from raids, the task line, or Black Division. Raid-document limits vary by selected mode, and progress toward them is shared.

Document sources

TerraGroup documentation is a new task-item-like loot type. Battlestate says it can be found while playing as either a PMC or a Scav in every game mode. The official examples associate different document types with different locations, including Streets of Tarkov and Customs, plus Factory and The Lab.

Documentation can also come from the KORD BREACH task line and certain Black Division operatives. Classified Documents are a universal substitute that can replace any other documentation type for Battle Pass rewards. They are bought with TarCoins in the Expansion Hub, so the pass itself stays free while a paid shortcut exists alongside it. Exact document types, spawns, farming routes, exchange choices, and availability should live in the dedicated document guide because they can change quickly. Battlestate's August 1 Battle Pass post explains the shared system and is where the location examples above come from.

Mode-wide progress

You do not have to create a Seasonal Character just to make Battle Pass progress. The pass is available in PvP Season, PvP Zone, and PvE Zone, and progress plus unlocked rewards are shared between those modes.

That gives you a practical choice. Use the profile you genuinely want to play, then make documentation part of a normal raid plan. Do not abandon a preferred PvE or permanent PvP session simply because you assume the pass is locked to the seasonal profile.

Daily limits

Battlestate confirms a daily limit on the documentation you can carry out of raids. The limit depends on the selected game mode, while progress toward that limit is shared across modes. Battlestate's August 13 clarification matters here: the count starts as soon as at least one document leaves a raid, so the cap is on extraction, not on how many documents spawn.

Battlestate published the numbers on August 13, 2026: 30 documents per day in PvP Season, 20 in PvP Zone, and 15 in PvE Zone. The same update raised document spawns to 14 per location and 10 on Factory. One thing the notes do not resolve: the counter is shared across modes but the ceilings differ, and Battlestate has not said which ceiling applies to someone who raids in two modes on the same day. Assume the lower one until the client tells you otherwise. No official daily reset time has been published either.

Plan against the official per-mode figure, not a community estimate. Once you hit the daily transfer cap, shift to tasks, trader reputation, Hideout work, or route practice. Battlestate has already revised these numbers once, on August 13, so recheck the current values after any balance update before building a farming plan around them.

🏆 Which quests and rewards matter first?

Prioritize the KORD BREACH task line only if you want its seasonal unlock path. Keep it separate from the free Battle Pass and from Kappa planning. The task line can open achievements, Operational Tasks, and trader offers. A seasonal reward left locked at season end becomes permanently unobtainable.

Questline gates

The KORD BREACH task line can award achievements, unlock new Operational Tasks, and open valuable trader offers, including an offer for a new weapon. That makes the visible next task more important than an old list of quest steps copied from launch day.

Read the live task text before committing gear or time. The official patch notes describe the outcomes, but they do not give this guide a stable complete quest order or every objective. A separate quest walkthrough should own that detail after it is verified against the current client.

Permanent rewards

Seasonal Rewards can unlock through a PMC level, a specified task, or a task chain. Once unlocked, they become permanently available across the account's PvP Zone, PvE Zone, and PvP Season. Battlestate specifically described KORD BREACH reward offers tied to Black Division equipment.

The patch notes are explicit that Seasonal Rewards are unlocked by playing a Seasonal Character, so staying on a permanent profile means you cannot unlock them, which is the real cost of opting out. That is a separate question from whether the KORD BREACH task line itself appears on a permanent profile, which the notes do not address and which the table above tells you to check in the client. This is the season's real time pressure. Do not rush every task because the season exists. Pick the reward path that matters to you. Then check whether its level or task-chain requirement is realistic before the final days are announced.

Kappa changes

Patch 1.1 changed the achievement around the Kappa path. Starting with Season 1, The Kappa Path achievement is no longer earnable. Completing Collector now grants the Dawn of a New Era achievement instead. That is an achievement change, not proof that the Kappa secure container disappeared.

Collector itself was revised too. In Battlestate's pre-release requirements announcement, many side tasks were removed from the list, leaving only a few such as A Shooter Born In Heaven. In exchange, Battlestate added new requirements: Loyalty Level 4 with all traders, plus a separate Fence reputation threshold. The live Collector entry currently lists Loyalty Level 4 with seven traders, so check the client rather than assuming the announcement wording is literal. Verify those requirements in the current client before using them for a plan. Do not rely on a fixed task total or threshold unless it was rechecked after the patch. Battlestate's Kappa requirements announcement is the safer starting point.

🔗 How does Arena progress connect to the season?

EFT: Arena can send eligible progress into your PvP Season character, but your Seasonal Character does not send its progression or items back to Arena. The patch explicitly restricts transferable PMC experience and trader reputation by date. Other categories have their own conditions.

Transfer direction

The central rule is one-way progression synchronization from Arena into PvP Season. It is not a general two-way account merge.

The date condition matters for PMC experience and trader reputation. The official notes list other transfer categories separately, so check live eligibility before you plan around an older Arena result. Tactical Clothing remains the stated two-way exception. The official Patch 1.1.0.0 notes give the transfer categories and their limits.

Task gates

Do not assume every Arena reward follows the same condition. The patch notes specifically place a task gate on transferring some currency and item categories: Jack of All Trades in EFT: Arena. Basic progression and trader details have their own stated post-season-start condition.

Before an Arena session, confirm that you are on PvP Season. Then verify the earned date for PMC experience or trader reputation and any item or currency prerequisite. That short check prevents most avoidable confusion.

Known sync issues

If a transfer seems missing, do not assume a general outage. Confirm the profile type and earned date first. Then check the relevant task condition, reopen both titles, and capture the date, profile, action, and screenshots before using an official support route. For the wider game relationship, ArmadaBoost's existing Escape from Tarkov Arena explainer can provide additional background, and the Escape from Tarkov guides hub collects the map, quest and progression pages.

🤝 Where can you get legitimate help?

Legitimate help starts with official rules and the current character screen. Use self-play if you only need a route, calculator, or rule check. Consider coaching when you want live decision feedback. If you explore a third-party service, confirm its method, scope, and account implications before ordering.

Coaching

Coaching makes the most sense when the blocker is a decision you want to repeat later. A focused session can cover profile selection, route planning, task preparation, extraction choices, or how to read a modifier tradeoff. It should not promise a specific seasonal reward, Arena transfer, or account result.

If that is your goal, review ArmadaBoost's current EFT Coaching options and ask for the present seasonal scope before you commit. Keep your own credentials private and make sure the activity matches the current game rules.

Self-play

Self-play is the right choice when you want to learn the season without outsourcing the decision. Use the profile table above, read the live modifier screen, set one task or document goal, and leave enough time to extract. That is the fastest way to find out whether the seasonal loop suits you.

For many players, one clean seasonal route matters more than a fast start. Learn the rule set first, then decide whether you need extra guidance for a specific blocker.

Seasonal services and prerequisites

Need help with a defined KORD BREACH goal? Choose the smallest option that matches the problem, then verify its current method and availability before ordering.

Seasonal methods can change with the patch, task rules, and live availability. Confirm the exact goal before you order, and keep the in-game rule set as the final authority.

🗓️ How this guide is maintained

Last verified August 22, 2026 against Patch 1.1.0.0 and the current official KORD BREACH announcements. The August 13 balance update, which published the per-mode document transfer caps, is reflected above; the August 21 technical patch was reviewed and changes nothing here.

Confirmed mechanics are checked against first-party Battlestate materials. Live interface values, player reports and unconfirmed quantities are marked in the text for in-game or official rechecking, and detailed routes and modifier builds stay in separate guides so this page survives a live update. Written by the ArmadaBoost EFT Content Team. Recheck the live client after any patch that touches progression, rewards or Arena synchronization.